Nothing Would Make Me Happier
by Princess Pheonix Tears
Summary: One Shot. James finds Lily sitting on a bench in one of Hogwarts' gardens, and she confides in him. The moonlight has a strange effect on the two students.


**Nothing Would Make Me Happier**

It was the night of the Hogwarts Christmas Ball. A night that had been looked forward to all term, especially James Potter. James, who had gone stag, had spent the entire evening periodically looking around for one, Ms. Lily Evans, the object of his affection. Every time he had looked up, he found her laughing or chatting with her friends. Halfway through the evening, he realized he had lost track of her. He searched the Great Hall thoroughly and came to the conclusion that she had left. After asking a few of her friends where she was and receiving no answers, he grew concerned. He left the Ball in search of her, his gut telling him to check the grounds.

He found her sitting on a bench in the middle of one of the vast gardens that were known only to a few of the Hogwarts students. Her deep hunter green dress accented every one of her features perfectly, and hugged her curves in all the right places. He thought she was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen, and he realized that he told himself that daily. It was as true today as it was the first time he thought it.

The moon was almost full. In a few days he would be running around with Remus, Sirius, and Peter. But he didn't think about that, he thought about her, and how beautiful she was, sitting there in the moonlight.

The silvery moon was making her skin glow, and it gave a shimmering effect to her deep red hair. She sat with her back facing him, her head looking to some unknown object towards her left. James walked up to her silently, and he realized how much he loved what the moon was doing to her.

When he was right behind her, he couldn't help himself from placing both of his hands on either one of her shoulders, and then leaning down to kiss the spot where her neck and shoulders met. She didn't jump, flinch, or cringe at this. But neither could, or would, deny the shiver that ran down her body when he kissed her.

"What are you doing out here by yourself? Are you okay?" He asked softly. She shrugged, not saying a word, still staring at that distant unknown object.

He sat down next to her, his body facing the opposite direction of hers. He looked over at her, and he felt his breath catch when he saw the moonlight on her face. She was angelic.

"They're gone," she whispered. She spoke so quietly that James wondered for a brief second if she really had spoken at all.

He looked down at her puzzled. "Who's gone?" He asked. He didn't know who she was talking about, but he felt an unpleasant heavy feeling settle in his stomach.

She finally turned to look him in the eye. James nearly flinched when he saw how dead and blank her eyes looked. "My parents," she said. "They're dead. They died this morning." There was an unidentifiable look on her face, and her voice carried an odd, almost heavy tone.

James' eyes went wide and that heavy feeling in his stomach got heavier. He shook his head. "What?"

Her blank eyes continued to look at him. "My parents are dead."

James frowned and blurted out the first thing that came to his mind, "Then why the bloody hell did you come to the ball tonight?"

Lily shook her head and blinked. "I just found out ten minutes ago," she said. Suddenly her lack of emotion made sense to him. She was in shock.

"Oh my god, Lily, I'm so sorry," he whispered. He leaned over and tried to give her a hug. She didn't move or open up to him, making his attempt quite awkward. He didn't care.

"The Killing Curse," she said, her voice wavered slightly. "They were killed by the Killing Curse, by Death Eaters. They had no defense against them. They stood no chance. They-" A strangled sob managed to escape her throat, and her head hung down, trying to hide her tears.

James turned towards her, to embrace her again, but she stood up and walked to a nearby tree and leaned against it for support.

"It's not fair!" She cried out. "It's not fair! They had no chance! Do you hear me? Do you hear me, Voldemort? You _pathetic_ excuse for a wizard! You killed _innocent_ people! They didn't do a thing to you! Not a single thing!" She was screaming now, screaming up into the night sky at a person who couldn't even hear her. "But I will have you know that I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU! You cannot scare me! You will NOT DEFEAT ME!"

With that, she broke down crying, slowly sinking to her knees. She sobbed, and James went to go put his arms around her. He held her close to him, rubbing her back, trying to calm her down some.

"Lily, shhh, it's ok. Everything will be all right. I promise." He whispered these things right into her ear.

She shook her head, violently, and she looked up at him. She wiped the tears from her eyes angrily, and looked him dead in the eye. "You don't know that! Besides, you don't know anything about me! You don't know my situation, especially now that I have no parents! Don't presume to tell me what will and will not be ok!" She yelled at him. She almost immediately felt a twinge of guilt for shooting down the one person who was trying to help. She couldn't bring herself to apologize.

James didn't seem to be affected by this outburst. "Lily, I will do everything in my power to make sure that everything will be all right for you."

Lily felt a lone tear trickle down her cheek as she started to speak again. "I have nowhere to go," She whispered. "My sister hates me, and won't have a bloody thing to do with me. I have no other family. A few of the girls who were there when I got the owl offered me a place, but I just don't know."

"You're coming to live with me," James said with finality. It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"James, I can't. You and I can hardly stand each other sometimes! Besides, I couldn't impose on you and your family like that. Your parents would never allow it," she said weakly.

"Nonsense," James said. "Besides, you really don't have a choice. Once I tell my parents about it, and Sirius puts in his bit about how great you are, they won't let you live anywhere else. Even if they have to kidnap you in the middle in the night." He gave her a smile and chuckle.

Lily couldn't help but give a small smile in return. "You wanna take care of me?" She asked, only slightly astonished. "But why?" She really didn't need to ask that question for she already knew the answer.

He looked at her, and realized that this was it. This was the perfect moment he had been waiting for. "Lily Evans, I am madly in love with you," he said. "I want to spend the rest of my life taking care of you."

Lily looked at him, completely shocked to finally hear him say it out loud. Her eyes started to fill up with tears again. "You mean that?" She asked, her voice quavering slightly.

He smiled at her and nodded. He pulled her close to him, and Lily could feel his heart beating quickly as she laid her head against his chest. She threw her arms around his middle, and held onto him.

"Thank you," she whispered, looking up at him.

He smiled down at her. "You're welcome." He debated with himself on whether or not he should kiss her. He didn't want to take advantage of her when she was vulnerable, but she was so beautiful, that he almost couldn't stop himself. Luckily, his question was answered for him.

Lily leaned up and gently brushed her lips against his. The heat generated from her lips traveled all the way down his body to his toes. He was completely blown away by how soft and perfect she felt pressed up against him. His heart thudded in his chest as his grip tightened on her.

It was the first time _she_ had kissed _him_.

Of course there had been several times he had kissed her, usually without asking I might add, and that usually led to her smacking him for his efforts. He almost always kissed her cheek as they were parting ways during school, but she had never kissed him back.

James felt better than he ever had before. She was kissing him and he loved it. He held her close to him and felt his heart jump with each miniscule movement that she made with her lips. He deepened the kiss slightly and couldn't help the soft moan that came from the back of his throat. He lips were so damn soft that he couldn't help but run his tongue across them.

She pulled away after a moment, and James sighed happily, his eyes still closed.

He rested his forehead against hers. "Marry me."

"James! We're not even dating! What makes you think I'd want to marry you?" She asked, shock and surprise evident in her voice.

He opened his eyes. "Because I am so madly in love with you, and I am going to take care of you for the rest of your life," he whispered softly, looking into her eyes. "No one could love you more than I do and no one could take care of you better than I could. So marry me."

Her eyes were filling up with tears and she leaned up to give him a quick kiss on the lips. "Nothing would make me happier."


End file.
